Truman adds to K-State's walk-on legacy

Wildcat junior develops into starting linebacker

Kansas State junior linebacker Jonathan Truman, right, has 85 tackles this season for the Wildcats. Both he and fellow linebacker Ryan Mueller, left, are examples of walk-on players who developed into playmakers while in the K-State program.

MANHATTAN — Selling a high school football player to be a walk-on at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level is a lot easier with a history of successful walk-ons, which Kansas State has had plenty with Bill Snyder as head coach.

For junior linebacker and former walk-on Jonathan Truman, though, buying into the idea of joining the K-State program as a non-scholarship player had little to do with the success of past Wildcat walk-ons such as Ian Campbell, Jordy Nelson or Jon McGraw.

“When I first showed up, I didn’t hear much about (K-State’s walk-on history),” Truman said. “It’s really something that came to my mind after I showed up.”

Truman did buy into the K-State coaches’ confidence in his ability to add his name to the list of successful K-State walk-ons.

“They had confidence in me, and also I had confidence in myself that I could come here and earn a scholarship and make a name for myself. That was a goal for me coming in,” Truman said, adding he dismissed junior college and Division II opportunities to play at K-State. “It’s always been a goal since I was a little kid to play football in college. It’s been a goal since I was little, but I wrestled in high school, as well, so that was also an issue.”

Truman, who won a Class 5A state wrestling championship in the 189-pound division his senior year at Kapaun, solved the issue by trusting his gut.

“There were some junior colleges and D-II schools that I could’ve gone to, or like I said I had thought about wrestling at some schools,” said Truman, who finished with 312 career tackles in high school and was named a first team all-state linebacker as a senior, “but ultimately K-State is where I wanted to go, and that’s where I felt I needed to go. I’m glad I came.”

K-State is glad he came, too. The junior is second on K-State’s defense in tackles with 85 — including four tackles for loss — establishing him as a staple in the linebacker corps that was surrounded by question marks entering the season.

“He does things the right way, he’s always positive,” senior linebacker Blake Slaughter said of Truman, who has hit double-digit tackles in three games this season. “Even just coming in, you can see in a guy if they have the determination to get it done. He’s shown that.”

Getting to this point required two years of proving himself without a scholarship, which is one common sacrifice Snyder admires about all walk-ons.

“They don’t have the opportunity really to spend some extra time with a part-time job to help pay their education,” Snyder said. “They don’t want and their parents don’t want to build up those unbelievable debts that students create over a period of time just to get their education.”

The latter was Truman’s biggest motivation, serving as a constant reminder that he wasn’t the only one making a sacrifice.

“Knowing that my parents had to sacrifice their money to have me go to school here and to play football here really was always in the back of my mind as I was practicing, as I was working out,” said Truman, who received his scholarship the summer before the 2012 season. “I just thought that I had to give it 100 percent no matter what I do because if I slack, just a little bit, it’s my family that’s paying for it.”

While Truman’s parents were paying his college tuition, he was paying his dues as a redshirt in 2010 and on special teams in 2011, during which he registered 17 tackles and recovered a crucial fumble in K-State’s win over the Robert Griffin III-led Baylor Bears.

“The guy just came in and worked hard right off the bat," Slaughter said. "He just earned and found his way, and gained some weight (now listed at 219 pounds). Jonathan Truman is a dream teammate. Obviously his size, he’s gotten bigger this year. His intelligence, his smarts about the game have gone way, way up. There’s nobody I’d rather play beside because he’s done everything that he can to make sure we’ve been successful.

“I think he’s been kind of under appreciated in a way because he’s done a lot of really special things this year.”

TWO WILDCATS HONORED — Wide receiver Tyler Lockett and defensive end Ryan Mueller were second-team selections on the Football Writers Association of America All-America team announced Wednesday.

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